I don't buy the superstars argument ... I don't go to a game just to watch one player and that one player won't get me to drop that kind of money on a game if the team stinks.
TB, ATL, FLA, LA, NYI and until recently STL and BOS had bottom 10 teams for years ... you can even include CHI in that list, how can you expect them to sell out every game ? I know that if the team is terrible I would have a hard time dropping the coin for season seats ... let alone one or multiple games. Pittsburgh was almost about to go in to bankruptcy as well as Buffalo and they turned it around once the team started to turn it around in terms of talent and higher level of play. I'm also pretty sure that if Chicago continues to be good they'll sell out almost every game ... same with St. Louis and Boston, but once/if they become a bottom 5 team for a couple years again they won't.